“Swamp Judgement” by N. B. Young, Jr.

 

From the light streaks in the sky overhead he could reckon the way the sun was setting. That was his course—due west with the sun. Somewhere in that direction was the other side of Big Swamp—“thirty miles as the crow flies” he had always heard.

Here we have a 1910 story of survival in an unforgiving cypress swamp. The survival is dual as the environment must be overcome and also what is pursuing our protagonist.

I shall not give away more than that regarding this fine story that strikes me as a Southern Gothic Jack London tale. The author, as a young man, lived next door to Booker T. Washington to parents born into slavery.

He went on to become president of Florida A&M College and Missouri’s Lincoln University.

The author won a story contest for the magazine Crisis with this fine entry.

Well worth a revival!